goth4

Music

The six grounds for a band being called Gothic:

1.The band's musical sound fits into one of the gothic music types -- their music creates a certain eerie or surreal sort of mood.
2. The band's lyrics contain gothic themes (e.g. grotesque, mysterious, desolate).
3. The band members' appearance is Gothic -- they might wear a lot of black.
4. The band calls itself and/or its music Gothic. They tour with other bands that are considered Gothic. 5.They appear on Gothic compilation discs.
6.The record label, music marketers, or music reviewers present the band as Gothic. The reasoning behind this is - usually - based on one of the above four reasons. However, often the motivation for labeling a band Gothic is to sell the product and does not have much, if any, basis in the above four reasons.

The most feeble reason to call a band Gothic is that people who call themselves Gothic listen to the band. This does not necessarily make a band Gothic, but it does lead many people to believe the band is Gothic, whether they qualify in any of the previous areas or not.

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Often it depends on how the band views Gothic as to whether or not they will consider themselves Gothic. Some bands will say that they are creating completely original music that defies classification, or that they do not wish to label themselves. Nonetheless, music reviewers and marketers like to classify music to help people get the feel for what the music sounds like for those who have never heard it before. It also helps them sell music to their target market. There is a considerable amount of flexibility when classifying a band as one thing or another. Different people can put the same music into different classifications. A band might change their sound or style from album to album with a variety of labels put on their various works. There's a good amount of crossover of music types as well, such as Gothic Industrial, when the same music falls into more than one category at the same time. Just remember: these classifications are not set in stone.

Religion

There is no set belief system for Gothics, although most of them have a leaning towards being agnostic and/or having certain beliefs and views of a particular religion (especially Christianity) but not following any set rules or any organized forms of that religion. Religion has nothing to do with one's "Gothness," and one's religious beliefs don't affect one's being a member of the gothic community. One will find represented in Goth: Christians (Mormon, Catholic, Baptist, etc.), atheists, Jews, agnostics, Satanists, pagans, and so forth. While there's an incredibly wide variety of religious beliefs and views, most Goths don't follow any sort of organized religion, and their personal spiritual beliefs are of a private nature.

Gothic is a fairly open-minded culture when it comes to exploring anything that is "not of the norm." Religion is no exception. Many Goths are likely to explore alternate religions and forms of spirituality rather than following a dominant organized religion. Some find paganism and Wicca to be appealing.

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Gothics are often accused of being Satanists because of their bizarre or dark appearances. There are some Satanists who are also Goth, but Satanists can be found in any group of people. They are not exclusively Gothics. Satanism and the occult itself are extremely complex belief systems with as many differences in interpretation and types as Christianity. This is an area that people have the most confusion and misinformation regarding. Satanism as a documented religion, such as Anton LeVay's Church of Satan, is almost nothing like what most people's conception of Satanism is. Satanists are a very small percentage of Goths, and Goths are an extremely small percentage of Satanists.

In 1992, the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime published an extensive report by Kenneth Lanning, Supervisory Special Agent, entitled Satanic, Occult, Ritualistic Crime: A Law Enforcement Perspective. Excerpts from this study may help clarify some misunderstanding:

"The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus, and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don't like this statement, but few can argue with it... After all the hype and hysteria is put aside, the realization sets in that most satanic/occult activity involves the commission of NO crimes, and that which does, usually involves the commission of relatively minor crimes... It is easy to blame involvement in satanism and the occult for behaviors that have complex motivations. A teenager's excessive involvement in Satanism and the occult is usually a symptom of a problem and not the cause of a problem. Blaming Satanism for a teenagers' vandalism, theft, suicide or even act of murder is like blaming a criminal's offenses on his tattoos: both are often signs of the same rebelliousness and lack of self-esteem that contribute to the commission of crimes.
"Most teenagers involved in fantasy role-playing games, heavy metal music, or Satanism and the occult are going through a stage of adolescent development and commit no significant crimes. The teenagers who have more serious problems are usually those from dysfunctional families or those who have poor communications within their families. Those troubled teenagers turn to Satanism and the occult to overcome a sense of alienation, to obtain power, or to justify their antisocial behaviour. For these teenagers, it is the symbolism, not the spirituality, that is important. It is either the psychopathic or the oddball, loner teenager who is most likely to get into serious trouble. Extreme involvement in the occult is a symptom of a problem, not the cause. This is not to deny, however, that Satanism and the occult are negative influences for a troubled teenager. But to hysterically warn teenagers to avoid this 'mysterious, powerful, and dangerous' thing called Satanism will drive some teenagers right into it. Some rebellious teenagers will do whatever will most shock and outrage society in order to flaunt their rejection of adult norms..."

Misinformed About Goths
In response to "For Goths, 'Every Day is Halloween'"
I've never read a more hideously misinforming article on the Gothic subculture. Even though I don't know what Goths in Salt Lake City are like, Goths around the country are not like the two boys mentioned in your article. Just because two teens are completely out of their minds doesn't mean every last living Goth is like that. We do not have a "romance for death"; we simply find it intriguing. We don't worship Satan or sacrifice puppies. We are not cold-hearted monsters either. The "definition" of Goth used in this article (no Goth would stoop to use CPR...) is complete lunacy. That definition is a joke. How hard is it to understand sarcasm? Goths don't love death and don't leave people to die. The two boys in this particular crime more than likely were Marilyn Manson followers (who, by the way, are not Goth) and not Goths. It can also partially be the parents' fault in this case. What kind of decent parents let their teen-age kid stay out all night without at least requiring a check-in phone call? Especially if the child is a diabetic. The parents here are only looking for a scapegoat. You can't blame an entire subculture for the actions of a few screwed-up, teen-age drug addicts who think Marilyn Manson is God. Leave Goth alone until you know what you're talking about.

Amanda Wulff, Eau Claire WI

USA Today
Nov 10, 1994
By Tim Friend
Hip Children of the Dark

A lithe young man and his lanky girlfriend, long hair swaying in time with the driving beat, suddenly squat to the floor, weaving arms and waving hands in front of their faces. First the boy, then the girl, lurch to their feet and pirouette on the dance floor of the Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar. The words of Type O Negative blare on the sound system:

She's in love with herself.
She likes the dark.
On her milk white neck.
The devil's mark.

Everyone is dressed in black - velvet gowns, capes, elaborately embroidered shirts, or skirts too short to measure. They dance next to a coffin as mist rises from the floor. Welcome to the lusty underground of Goth, where vampires are in and all things dark and dead are chic. For those swimming in the mainstream for the last 15 years, Goth(ic) is a scene with roots buried in the early 1980's. Its popularity waxes and wanes like the moon, but it's flourishing again with the vampire rage. Goth has always been dark in mood and music and absolutely pretentious. Indeed, it's so dark, so morbid, that it seems to derive pleasure from being a parody of itself. And if it becomes too popular, it will rebel and crawl back into the ground and wait until no one is paying attention.

"Gothic is an outbranch of punk that's decided to be more morbid and beautiful instead of being the joke that punk was - dressing like an idiot and being talentless," says Lance Goth, owner of the Vampire Sex Bar in Toronto's Queen West Village. "I wanted this to be a real sanctuary for people who enjoy the gothic/industrial musical scene."

But vampire sex bar? Don't vampires just drink blood? "I never really believed that. And everyone I've met who claims to be a vampire loves sex," says Goth, in whose bar people "may hunt but cannot feed." Vampire bars are a feature in Anne Rice's novels. But whether they inspired real vampire bars is hard to say. What's clear is her books have had a cultural influence. "The vampire scene has grown 100% due to the accessibility of Anne Rice with the young," Goth says. Goth believes his club is the only one that labels itself a vampire bar. But others can be found in weekend newspaper sections under the label gothic/industrial. The music is a hybrid of monastic gothic and the electronic hard beat of industrial. Dracula meets Mad Max.

"There's definitely a vampire clique, but the Goth crowd is really more dedicated to the culinary arts, fashion and culture of the period," says Peter Stone, host of the House of Usher, Tuesday nights at Club DV8 in San Francisco. House of Usher night packs in 300 to 700 lavishly dressed young "vampires." New York has The Batcave at Downtime, the Limelight and Communion.

Even in staid Washington, D.C., the V Column draws 600 people on its Gothic Mondays. Mode of dress: a combination of Victorian, Renaissance and Victoria's Secret. "The scary thing is that some of these people you work with," Stone says. But are these people serious? Get real, Stone says. "Our club isn't filled with people who think they're blood-sucking vampires. If someone came here who actually believed they were a vampire, they'd be laughed off the floor."

Says Neville Wells, who orchestrates the New York scene: "Most of the kids in the scene will be the type that are very intelligent and go to Columbia or NYU. The vampire theme is more on the commercial level. But a lot of these kids tend to be pale-skinned anyway and don't get out much into the sun."

Most pretentious is the gothic way of dancing. "There's really not a name for the dance style. But you could say it's a cross between emotional, depressed, ethereal, ballroom, solo dancing," Stone says. "Dramatic is the best word. It's choreographed with moves you can make fun of. I have no problem thinking it's comical." Then Stone turns serious. He and the others sense danger lurking just around the commercial corner. What will happen when the popularity of Interview With the Vampire drags their underground mystique into the naked light of day? Says Stone: "Yes we're afraid. After the movie comes out, little Biffy and Boffy from the MTV crowd are going to go out and get fangs and ruin it for everybody."

A taste of the Goth(IC) from the mainstream.

Curious about the gothic/industrial scene? Cruise the Internet and you get club and music information, and even dance moves, on alt.gothic or cyberden.com. And, if you aren't brave enough to go to a club to see and hear for yourself, here's a listening list to get you acquainted from Alternative Press magazine (the November issue features a story on the Goth movement):

Siouxsie and the Banshees, Voices (1978)
Bauhaus, Bela Lugosi's Dead (1979)
The Cure, Faith (1981)
Christian Death, Only Theatre of Pain (1982)
Dead Can Dance, Dead Can Dance (1984)
Flesh for Lulu, Subterraneans (1984)
Sisters of Mercy, First and Last and Always (1985)
The Mission, Wake (RSVP) (1986)
Rosetta Stone, Adrenaline (1993)
Nosferatu, Rise (1993)
Two Witches, The Vampire's Kiss (1993)
Screams for Tina, Screams for Tina (1994)

For a wide selection of newer releases, check out anything on the Cleopatra label.